Preview: River Road Wildcats vs. Tulia Hornets
After 11 games on the road, River Road is heading back home. They will take on the Tulia Hornets at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday. River Road is strutting in with some hitting muscle, as they've averaged 7.6 runs per game this season.
On Tuesday, it was a hard-fought matchup, but River Road had to settle for a 5-4 defeat against Dalhart.
Ava Sharp was huge no matter where she played even without the win. She struck out nine batters over five innings while giving up just two earned (and one unearned) runs off three hits. Sharp has been consistent recently: she hasn't tossed less than five strikeouts in eight consecutive pitching appearances. Sharp was also big at the plate, getting on base in three of her four plate appearances with two runs and a triple.
Sharp wasn't the only one making solid contact as three players wound up with at least one hit. One of them was Carolyn Koval, who went 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBI.
Even though they lost, River Road didn't let batters stay on the plate for long and finished the game with 11 strikeouts. That's the most strikeouts they've managed all season.
Meanwhile, Tulia can now show off 11 landslide victories after their most recent match on Tuesday. Everything went their way against Canadian as Tulia made off with a 14-4 victory. The win made it back-to-back victories for Tulia.
The team relied heavily on Cece Abeja, who got on base in four of her five plate appearances with a home run, four RBI, and two runs. The team also got some help courtesy of Jerrica Brookins, who went 2-for-4 with a home run, three RBI, and two runs.
River Road's loss dropped their record down to 11-7. As for Tulia, they are on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four games, which provided a nice bump to their 12-8-2 record this season.
Fans could be in store for some top-tier slugging on Saturday. River Road hasn't had any problems when it comes to power this season, having averaged 1 home runs per game. However, it's not like Tulia struggles in that department as they've been averaging 0.6 per game. With so much power on both teams, it'll be down to the pitchers to keep the mound locked down.
River Road took their win against Tulia when the teams last played back in April of 2023 by a conclusive 16-4. Does River Road have another victory up their sleeve, or will Tulia turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
